Part 2

It has been a few days since Lillith took some time off from farm work. Since then, Takakura has taken over the work around the farm. Lillith has been keeping herself busy so that she doesn't get too bored. She likes to read the newspaper so that she can keep up with the current events. She also plays games with her son Toby and read to him as well. Even though she worries about the farm, she still enjoys the time she spends with her family.

Today, Lillith is sitting alone in the house reading her favorite book in the bedroom. Rock went to see the local merchant to buy some new toys for Toby. He also took Toby along so he can choose what toys he wants. Lillith wanted to go as well, but Rock asked her to stay home and relax.

About an hour after they left her alone, a young man with spiky blond hair and farming clothing enters the house. Oddly, this man is not Rock. Rock does not wear farming clothes and his hair is smooth and straight falling down sideways. Lillith was too into the book to notice this man come into the house.

As the strange man walks past her, he says, “mom, I'm going to get some ice cream. Is that okay?”

“Sure, make sure you brush your teeth afterwards son,” answered Lillith without looking at who is she talking to.

The man walks into the kitchen, and shuts the door behind him. Lillith continues to read her book flipping to a new page. It takes her a minute to realize that she was not talking to her four year old son, but an adult version of her son. She throws the book to the side, and runs over to the kitchen to confirm what she thought she saw is true.

She opens the kitchen door and takes a look inside. She finds her four year old son Toby alone in the kitchen eating a bowl full of ice cream. At first, she feels relieved thinking that she only imagined her son as an adult. But then she notices something else odd. The ice cream is in the freezer, and Toby is far too short to reach it. Nobody else is in the house but Toby and herself, so she just stands there wondering, who served him ice cream?

Rock enters the house seconds later. He is about to call for Lillith to see if everything was okay, but he finds her standing in front of the open kitchen door looking like she is seeing something unusual. Curious to know what she is staring at, he walks over to her and looks into the kitchen. All he could see is Toby eating some ice cream, nothing unusual.

He looks at her, but notices that she has yet to notice him standing next to him. So he asks, “Lillie, is everything okay? Do you see something in the kitchen?”

As she turns to face her husband, she says, “no, not really, I just-” Her eyes widened as soon as she sees Rock's face. Bleach white hair, face full of wrinkles, pruney old hands. She does not see Rock, but an old man in Rock's clothing. She quickly shuts her eyes, and screams uncontrollably to the top of her lungs in fear.

As Lillith is shouting frantically, Rock grabs her shoulders yelling, “Lillie, what's wrong!? It's me, Rock!! Just calm down!!”

She stops screaming and opens her eyes slowly. In the small gaps of her vision, she sees her husband normal again. Blond hair, smooth skin, handsome face, she feels relieved that he is back to normal. She embraces him tightly wanting a feeling of comfort and protection. She looks over at her son, and sees that her screaming has upset him. He spilled his ice scream, and is now crying on the table. Feeling sorry for scaring him, she runs over to Toby, and hugs him apologizing for her odd behavior.

Rock wants to know what just happened. She was doing fine for a few days, he was even going to start allowing her to continue with the farm work again. But now he is unsure if he should. So he walks up to her and asks, “Lillie, what happened? Are you okay?” Lillith continues to hold her son patting his head until he stops crying. Rock takes a deep breath and continues, “Lillie, you have to tell me what's bothering you. I can't help you if you're going to keep things like this a secret from me. If you saw something, just tell me.”

Lillith sighs, she knows that telling him the truth will only make him think that she is going crazy. But she also knows that what she is seeing is not her imagination. It's too real to be an illusion. Even if her eyes are lying to her, the fact that Toby got ice cream by himself is something she could not explain.

She begins her story, “when Toby entered the house by himself, I could have sworn he was a full grown man. I didn't see him, but he had a grown man's voice and he spoke to me like a grown man. But when I went to check on him, he was a kid again. Then you came in looking like a 50 year old man. I know it sounds like I’m seeing things, but I swear that-”

“Lillie, okay you can stop now,” interrupted Rock. He pats her on the head and says, “maybe we should go visit Doctor Hardy. I'm sure he can help.”

Lillith looks back at Rock with an upset look on her face. “You think I'm crazy, don't you?” she asked.

Rock shakes his head no and answers, “I would never think that of you! But I think that you should see him just in case.” Lillith looks away. Rock can already see that she doesn't want to go to the doctor. She has always been stubborn, and Doctor Hardy is the one person in Forget-Me-Not Valley she does not like to visit.

“Lillie, please. If you don't want to do it for me, do it for Toby.” After hearing that, she looks down at her son who is resting on her chest.

He had already stopped crying, but he is still upset by his mother's screaming. After patting his hair, and kissing him on the head, she says, “okay, I'll go see the doctor.”

Rock is relieved to hear that she has agreed to go see a doctor. The reason why Lillith is never happy to see the doctor is mainly because she is freaked out by the way he looks. Like many doctors, he has a lab coat, and a degree in medical sciences hanging on the wall. But unlike most doctors, Doctor Hardy does not like to wear pants. He walks around the valley and his clinic in his boxer shorts. He also has a face the resembles a vicious pitbull. But what make her feel very uncomfortable is his left eye. His right eye is normal, but his left eye is obviously fake, like something ripped out of a science fiction movie. Now many people in the valley know what happened to his left eye, or why does he walk around in his boxers. All everyone does know is that he is a very talented doctor. Despite his appearance, he is very kind and reliable.

Even though the doctor makes her feel uneasy, she still promised Rock that she will see him. Rock and Toby also go along to see if everything is going to be fine. At the clinic, Lillith tells the doctor everything she saw starting with the collapsing of the shed to seeing Rock as an old man. Hardy then runs a bunch of tests on Lillith to see what may be causing her to see the things she saw earlier. He starts with simple tests, taking her temperature for signs of a fever. Then he asks about her diet and things she may have eaten in the wild. Seeing that nothing is wrong, he checks her blood, and other more complex tests.

As Hardy is checking the results, Lillith, Rock, and Toby wait in the clinic for his diagnosis. After about 10 minutes of waiting, Doctor Hardy closes his folder and says, “well, the good news is that there is nothing physically wrong with Lillith. In fact, she is the perfect example of health in my own opinion.”

Lillith sighs in relief. But Rock is not buying it just yet. So he asks, “well, if she's fine, then what do you think is causing her to see these weird things?” Hearing Rock say those words does not make her feel good about herself. The more she thinks about it, the more she feels that he husband thinks she's insane.

Doctor hardy clears his throat before saying, “I had a little chat with Lillith a little while ago. I believe her strange visions has something to do with her late father.”

“My father?” asked Lillith.

“It's not common, but since you and your father were very close, the stress from losing him may cause you to have illusionary dreams in your awake state. Working in the farm where your father passed away may intensify the stress you feel subconsciously. Things like this may happen when people work hard to attempt to forget their grief or sadness. Eventually, it can catch up to you causing you to have emotional problems.”

Lillith thinks about the doctor's advice for a moment. She has been working very hard the last couple of years and has missed several chances to visit her father's grave or think about him as often as she should. Thinking about it long enough draws her to the possible conclusion that Hardy may be correct about her condition.

Rock stares at her for a moment before asking, “Lillie, are you okay? What are you thinking about?”

Lillith then stands up full of confidence. She thinks that she might have found the cause of her strange illusions. She then looks at Rock and Toby saying, “I think he's right. I have been worrying too much about work, and not enough about my personal feelings. Maybe I'll visit my father's grave later, and talk to him for a while.”

Rock smiles at Lillith feeling that she is already on the road to recovery. She smiles back at him, and starts to walk out of the clinic saying, “see? I think I feel better already!”

But as soon as she opens the door, she begins to see something unusual again. Outside the clinic, she sees a snowstorm covering the valley in white snow. She spends a moment staring at it before shutting the door slowly. What is bothering her the most is the fact that they are in the middle of Summer. There is no possible way that there could be a snowstorm in this time of the year.

It takes a moment before Rock and Doctor Hardy notices Lillith standing in front of the closed door standing still like a statue. “Is everything okay?” asked Hardy.

Lillith looks back at then and said, “nothing. I just. . .” Before saying anything else, she opens the door once again to see if she really did see a snowstorm. As she looks outside, she doesn't see any snow outside, not even a sign that a snowstorm had even passed. No leftover snow, no moisture, not even a single cloud in the sky. Just the warm Summer sun shining on her face. As she looks outside, she says, “Nothing, everything is just fine. Please don't worry.”

Her actions make him feel awkward, but Doctor Hardy allows it to pass. He folds his hands neatly as he says, “I recommend you take a few more days off of work. That way you can clear your head, and recover quickly.” Lillith looks back, and nods at the doctor.

On the way back home, Lillith remains lost in thought about what she saw earlier. Not only did the blizzard look real, but it felt real as well to her. The cold air that touched her face, the strong winds that passed through the door. The more she thinks about it, the more real it seemed. But at the same time, she is walking outside, and not even a single sign of a snowstorm.

Rock is carrying their son on the way home. As they walk, he notices that Lillith's mind is occupied by something. He even tries to wave his hand in front of her face, but gets no reaction. He really wants to know what's on her mind, so he takes a deep breath and asks, “Hey Lillie, what are you thinking about? Something on your mind?”

She looks back at Rock for a second. She then looks ahead and says, “Nothing, I was just thinking, that's all. There's nothing to worry about.”

Rock sighs. He knows that getting her to spill the beans will be too hard for him to handle. But as he looks at her and finds something unusual. He points at it and says, “Hey Lillie, what's that in your hair?”

She stops after hearing that she hears that something is in her hair. She grabs it, but feels a chill down her spine after feeling how cold it is. She brings it in front of her face, and opens her palm to find a puff of snow in her hands. Rock takes a look at it and asks, “Is that snow in your hand?”

Lillith gasps and yells, “Oh my god, it's not an illusion!!”

“Illusion? What are you talking about?” asked Rock.

She then turns to her husband and explains, “Rock, listen to me really carefully! When we were at the clinic, I opened the door twice to leave. Once when I thought that I was just imagining everything. I know this sounds odd, but the first time I opened the door, there was a snowstorm passing through the valley!!”

“A snowstorm?” asked Rock. “But there can't have been a snowstorm. It's Summer, and it never snows in Summer, let alone a snowstorm.”

“Dammit I know it's Summer! But I saw it, and felt it too!” She shows the puff of half melted snow to Rock's face and continues, “Look at this, where do you think this came from!? If a snowstorm never passed, how did this snow get in my hair, huh!? Can you explain that!?”

Rock scratches his head for a moment. He is in a lost for words for a few minutes. But then he had an idea. “Well, Toby was eating ice cream earlier today right? Well, since he cannot reach for the ice cream; maybe you got it for him, and some of the frost from the freezer got stuck in your hair. That seems more logical than a snowstorm.”

Lillith is getting upset at Rock. Even though she understands that a story like a snowstorm is ridiculous, the fact that she thinks that Rock feels that she lost her mind is making her feel angry. “Come on! I did not serve Toby that ice cream. I was in my room reading a book when he came into the house as a grown adult. Besides, if it was from the freezer, it would have melted a long time ago, and-” She suddenly cuts herself off. She then takes a look at the puddle of water in her hands and realizes that something is odd with the snow. Regardless on whether it came from a snowstorm or a freezer, the Summer heat would have melted it long before Rock had a chance to notice it.

“I get it now.” said Lillith to herself. Rock is confused at what she is saying, but he stands by waiting to hear what else she has to say. “I'm not seeing things. And it's not the farm that is acting up. It's the valley, something is wrong with the whole valley! It only started in the farm.”

“What are you saying Lillie? You're starting to scare me.”

“Rock, you don't get it, do you? Something is happening to the valley! . . . And I'm the only one who can notice it! At first, I thought it was just the farm. But now I'm seeing things happening to the valley. Strange things I can't explain. I don't know what it is, maybe it's a ghost or a spirit. Maybe it's telling me something that I can't understand. All I do know is that. . . Only I can see it.”

At this point, Rock wants to take her back to the clinic for a second evaluation. But knowing Lillith, she is not going to want to go back there. He feels lost and confused. He wants to help her, but he has no idea how. The only idea he can come up with is to just take her home, and hopefully she'll recover on her own.

So Rock takes her hand and says, “Lillie, are you hungry? How about we stop by the inn, and have some of mom's cooking. I think that will make you feel better.”

She looks at Rock's gentle smile and nods. They then go to the inn to have one of Ruby's famous lasagna. Toby has a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But as they eat, Lillith had an unshakable feeling that something is unusual. She can't see anything strange, but she can feel it. It has a lot to do with how everyone is acting. She can almost predict who was going to enter the inn at a specific order and where are they going to sit. Rock notices her looking around the inn at the other guests, but he ignores it. Last thing he wants to do is upset her.

After dinner, they all go back home to spend some family time together. They play with Toby and his new ball that Rock bought for him earlier. But as they played, Lillith has an unshakable feeling that she has seen that ball before. The pattern is quite unique with six stripes of many different colors, and a star in both ends. She knows that she never seen it before, but it's a feeling that she cannot let go.

That night, Rock tucks Toby to bed. Lillith and Rock also climb into bed to be ready for the next day. Rock can only hope that his wife will feel better tomorrow. But as Rock sleeps, Lillith stays awake staring at the ceiling. She doesn't see anything wrong with it, but she cannot go to sleep knowing that something odd is happening. What if there is a spirit haunting the valley? Would it harm her family or her friends? Why does she keep getting these odd feelings from people and objects? Is it all in her head, or is it all real?

Seeing that she cannot sleep anytime soon, she climbs out of bed and changes into her farming clothes once again. She wants to know what is happening or else she cannot sit still. After kissing her son on the cheek, she takes a walk outside. She takes a walk around the pasture looking for odd signs like spiritual anomalies or demonic activities. But she finds nothing as she walks around.

Before she gives up the search in the farm, she stops in front of the shed. It's still standing strong, but still unused. It has always been boarded up even before Lillith inherited the farm from her father. Who boarded it up? Was it her father, or the owner before him? Why was it boarded up? Is there something inside?

She grabs the handle, and tries to open it, but it's boarded up pretty tightly, she cannot get in unless she breaks down the door. Rather than dealing with it, she leaves it alone and walks away. Just then, she sees Takakura walking around. It's unusual for Takakura to be walking around at this hour, especially since he needs to wake up so early to make his daily deliveries.

She stands there staring but saying nothing to him, just watching not knowing if he is going to do something odd. As soon as he gets close to her, he says, “oh, Lillith. Nice night, eh?” She nods, but doesn't say anything. He then points at the chicken yard and continues,“hey, I just finished that chicken yard like you asked. It's too late to take the chickens out now, so try early in the morning.”

Lillith smiles at him. She knows that this is the third time that he has mentioned that he finished the chicken yard. At this point, she can only imagine why he's repeating the same thing over and over. Is he growing senile? Is he possessed by a spirit or a demon? Or maybe he is not really there, and she is only imagining him standing in front of her. Rather than jump into conclusions, she just says, “thanks for your help Takakura. I'm sure you did a great job.”

And so she walks past him and continues to wander around the farm. Not too long afterwards, she finds herself outside the farm walking around aimlessly around the valley. She sees nothing directly unusual; but like she felt before, she can feel something utterly strange about the other villagers. Lillith can almost predict where they were going and what they’re going to say to one another before they do anything. She doesn't say anything to anyone, even to those who try to say hello to her. She just continues to walk around aimlessly around the village.

Early that morning, Rock wakes up to the early morning sun. He stretches his arms and yawns. It doesn't take long before he notices that Lillith is not in the bed with him. Since she doesn't have to work, the alarm clock doesn't wake her up before him. He gets out of bed, and starts looking for her around the house. She isn't in the kitchen, in the washroom, or the bathroom, or anywhere in the house.

Worried for her, he gets dressed without waking Toby up and walks out looking for her around the farm. He calls her name several times, but he gets no answer. It takes him about ten minutes before he notices her sitting at the entrance of the farm looking out into the distance. It's almost like she's looking at something, but there is nothing to see but the trees and the beach.

He runs to her to see if she's okay yelling, “Lillie! What are you doing there!? Why didn't you answer when I called you?”

As soon as Rock is next to her, she pats on the dirt road next to her and says, “Rock. . . Sit down please.”

At first, he is unsure on how to respond. But instead of doing or saying anything that may upset her, he just does what she wants and sat down. He sits there for a few minutes wondering why did she ask him to sit next to her. But all she does is continue to stare out to the distance and remains quiet.

He gets tired of waiting and asks, “Lillie, what’s going on? How long were you-”

She shushes him and then says, “Rock, I bet you I can tell you what's going to happen next. I feel that Muffy is going to go do her morning stroll, and stop on the bridge to stare at the river. . . Gustafa is going to walk out of his yurt and play a song. . . And Grant is going to run out of his house complaining that he is late, and bumps into Muffy almost knocking her into the river.”

Rock looks at her awkwardly, but he looks over at the valley to see if what she says is going to happen. After a moment, the blond girl named Muffy walks out of the bar and heads over to the bridge where she stares at the river flowing below her. Rock finds nothing strange because she does this every morning. Then Gustafa, the village hippie, walks out of his yurt with his banjo and starts to play a song. Even though he doesn't do this everyday, he does do it twice a week. He feels that it must be a coincidence. But he stares at Grant's home that stands next to their farm, and sees nobody coming out.

Rock sighs and says, “Lillie, please get a hold of yourself. You know that these people always do the same thing all the time. There is nothing unusual about what these people are doing.”

“Wait for it. . .” said Lillith.

Rock takes another deep breath and says, “Look, I know for a fact that Grant is not going to come out running out of his home. He's been living here for years, and not once has he been late for work. After all, he did give you his alarm clock, so-”

Just then, Grant runs out of his house slamming on the door yelling, “Oh my god! I'm so late! I'm going to ruin my chances for a promotion at this rate!” As he is running past the farm entrance, he is trying his hardest to put on his vest over his business suit while eating a piece of toast.

Rock is amazed that he is actually late like Lillith said he would. But what amazes him the most is that as he is running across the bridge, he bumps into Muffy almost knocking her into the river. A loud, “Watch it you jerk!!” screamed out of Muffy's lips after she regained her balance. Grant is in too much of a hurry to apologize to her.

“Wow, that's amazing,” said Rock. “How did you do that, I would have never guessed in a million years that Grant would ever be late to work.”

Lillith shakes her head no as she says, “This is not the first time he's done this. He has been late many times before, and almost knocking her into the river while Gustafa is playing music. All this has happened so many times before,” said Lillith. Rock is confused at what she is saying. “I think. . . That they all do this every year, like clockwork. Nobody notices it, not even me. . . Until now. Every year, everybody does the same thing over and over and over. Not even they notice that they are doing it. It's almost like they are possessed, forced into repeating the same thing without worry or care.”

“Lillith, you are not making any sense!”

“Rock? Tell me. . . How long have we been married?” asked Lillith.

Rock takes a moment to think before answering, “Toby is four years old now. We got married about a year before he was born. So we've been married about 5 years already.”

Hearing that answer doesn't make her feel any better. She just looks away and shakes her head no. She then continues, “For some odd reason, it feels like if we've been married longer than that. . . Ten years? Twenty years? Thirty years? . . . Maybe even forty or fifty years! I don't know why, but I feel that all of this strange stuff that has been happening didn't start recently. It's scary once you think about it, I don't know what's real anymore.”

Rock quickly embraces, and kisses her. Strangely, some of the fear that she felt start to dissolve away. The warm li ps of her husband feels too real to be an illusion. The feeling that he is there makes her feel calm and secure. Rock continues to kiss her for a while before letting go. He then gently strokes her cheeks while saying, “Lillie, please don't think about it so much. Just stop already, you're scaring me.”

“But. . .”

Rock sighs and continues, “Look at us. We are still a young couple, there is no way that we could be married for more than five years. Not to mention that Toby is still only four years old. And don't you feel my hands on your skin? Isn't this real enough for you to believe?”

Lillith stares at her husband's face for a moment. He is the same person she has been married to for a while, but something about him has changed. Usually he is goofy and playful. Now he is awfully romantic and serious, even for him. It feels to her that she is talking to a completely different person. But even if he is acting a bit different, she can still feel that this is the Rock she loves and married.

She places her hand on Rock's hand which is still resting on her cheek. A tear rolls down her other cheek as she says, “Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm thinking about it too much. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you worry.”

Rock smiles at her, and pecks her on her lips again. He then stands up saying, “Come on, lets get home. I'm sure that Toby is going to want some breakfast soon.”

She then nods and says, “Why don't you go on ahead. I need to talk to Takakura for a moment before I go home.”

Rock nods back and walks home by himself. As soon as she is sure that he is inside the house, she stands up and begins to walk towards the barn. She lied about talking to Takakura, especially since she knows that he is out making his deliveries to town.

As she passes by the barn, Takakura walks out of the Barn. Lillith doesn't bother to ask why is he still in the farm, especially since she personally saw him leave and not come back yet. She just walks past him without saying a word. As she passes Takakura, he says, “Lillith, I need to tell you that I just finished the chicken-”

“Shut it Takakura!! I heard you the first time!” yelled Lillith in a serious tone. She knows very well that Takakura was going to tell her that he just finished the chicken yard a fourth time, but she has too much on her mind to listen to it. Takakura just scratches his head, and wonders what is bothering her. But rather than asking questions he'll regret later, he just walks home.

She walks into the tool shed located on the side of the barn. Inside the shed, she grabs the ax that she wanted to use earlier to chop up the shed that came down days earlier. Now she has another reason to use it. She carries the ax on her shoulder with a scary stressful look on her face towards the unused shed.

Ever since the shed came down and mysteriously rebuilt itself in a matter of minutes, she has been having odd visions and noticed strange things no one else can. The only answer she can come up with is that the shed has something to do with them. Something inside has to be bothering her or the village. She doesn't know if there is a spirit or other unknown paranormal being inside the shed. But she knows one thing, she wants to know what's inside once and for all.

She raises the ax in the air, and screams to the top of her lungs as she drops the blade against the door splitting it in half. She takes a few deep breaths before looking inside. Her eyes widen and a chilling shock runs down her spine as she sees what’s in the shed.

Rock runs out of the house soon after hearing Lillith's scream. He yells her name as he runs around randomly looking for her. It doesn't take him long to notice her standing in front of the open shed as pale and stiff as a marble statue. Curious to know what is happening, he runs over to her side.

“Lillie! What's going on? Why didn't you answer me when I called you?” asked Rock.

Lillith remains quiet for a moment still shocked by the shed. She then points inside saying, “Hey Rock, take a look at that. I didn't know we had so much room inside this shed.”

The tone of voice she spoke were that of a joke, but the look on her face appears like she had lost her mind. But rather than provoking her, he looks into the shed where she is pointing into. What he sees frightens him too. From the outside of the shed, they can see that it only covers about 15 square feet of land. But from the inside, they can see miles and miles of pure white empty space. There is absolutely no top or bottom to the shed. They can look up, and see miles into the air without seeing into the sky. Rock throws a rock inside, and it falls and disappears into the vast deep white empty space below. Not even a sound proving that the inside of the shed is a bottomless pit. No matter which direction they look, the distance goes on forever. It's almost like the shed is some sort of door to another world.